Missouri election chief rejects petition seeking a public vote on new congressional districts backed by Trump

Missouri voters suspended and overturned a redistricting law in 1922, but Republicans now argue the people no longer have that power. (AP) — Missouri’s top election official has rejected a citizens’ petition seeking a statewide referendum on new congressional districts backed by President Donald Trump. Supporters of the referendum had submitted hundreds of thousands of petition signatures in a bid to force a November election on a new U.S.

House map approved by the Republican-led state Legislature. But Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins asserted Tuesday that the petition is unconstitutional because congressional redistricting plans cannot be subject to voter referendums. A group backing the referendum effort has said it will challenge Hoskins’ decision in court.

Missouri was the second Republican-led state, after Texas, to respond to Trump’s call last year to redraw congressional districts to the GOP’s advantage in hopes of holding on to the party’s slim House majority in the midterm elections. The new map, which is being used in Tuesday’s primaries, dramatically reshapes the Kansas City-based 5th Congressional District, held by longtime Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, by stretching it into rural central Missouri to give it a Republican tilt.

Republicans already hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional seats and hope to gain another under the new map. Missouri’s redistricting plan has faced lots of litigation People Not Politicians, the group sponsoring the referendum drive, submitted more than 300,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office in December. Local election officials reviewed the signatures’ validity over the ensuing months and approved well more than the roughly 111,000 needed to qualify for the ballot.

But Hoskins waited until the last day allowed under state law to announce his decision about the referendum — a move that let the new districts be used in the meantime. Hoskins had long signaled that he was likely to reject the referendum. He asked a federal court last fall to block the referendum petition from being submitted, arguing that congressional redistricting is not subject to a referendum under the U.S.

A judge dismissed the lawsuit as premature, noting in a December ruling that Hoskins had the authority to reject the petition himself if he thought it was unconstitutional. When Missouri candidates began filing for office in February, Hoskins said they were doing so under the new districts and told The … (AP) — Missouri election chief rejects petition seeking a public vote on new congressional districts backed by Trump.